Naomi Osaka had a rather unpleasant experience in Madrid against Belinda Bencic that will cost her the world no.1 rank if Simona Halep wins the tournament (see scenario).
The Japanese was playing in the quarterfinal against the Swiss that trashed her in the 4th round in Indian Wells 6-3 6-1. Apparently, that memory stayed with Naomi while leading 6-3 2-6 5-3 just before losing 4 consecutive games and the match. The Japanese imploded when she was serving out the match to be broken at love when she scored only 2 points in the last few games.
I was thinking too much about world no.1 rank. OSAKA
During the press conference following her defeat, Naomi commented
“I was just thinking about too many things. I wanted to win this match so much because she’d beaten me before. I didn’t want to lose twice in a row. People have been telling me if I get to the semis here, I can stay number one.
I wanted to do that but I was thinking about it while I was playing, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing.”
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